Ernesto Gastaldi Biography
Ernesto Gastaldi (born 10 September 1934) is an Italian screenwriter. Film historian and critic Tim Lucas described Gastaldi as the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. Gastaldi worked within several popular genres including pepla, Western and spy films.
Biography
Ernesto Gastaldi was born on 10 September 1934 in Graglia in the province of Province of Biella, Piedmont. Gastaldi left his job as a clerk at the Sella bank in Biella to move to Rome where he was admitted into Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. After graduating, Gastaldi had trouble finding work. In 1957, Gastaldi wrote his first science fiction novel which the publishers requested an English-language name for the cover. Gastaldi was sharing an apartment at the time with an Anglo-Italian man named Julian Birri, whom he adapted his name to for his alias, Julian Berry. Gastaldi would write more crime and science fiction novels during this period such as Sangue intasca (1957) as James Duffy, Brivido sulla schiena (1957) as Freddy Foster and Tempo zero (1960) as Berry.
Gastaldi's debut as a screenwriter and *istant director was with the film The Vampire and the Ballerina by Renato Polselli. Gastaldi reflected on writing the film by stating that his working hours were from 8 in the morning until midnight, stating that "if someone had told me I was making a Gothic film I would have laughed." Other works in gothic horror included Gastaldi writing for Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory, The Horrible Dr. Hich* and The Whip and the Body. Following his gothic works, was his work in giallo film, where Gastaldi directed films such as Libido, which was released in 1965.
Selected filmography
Footnotes
References
- Curti, Roberto (2013). Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980. McFarland. ISBN:978-0786469765.
- Curti, Roberto (2015). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957–1969. McFarland. ISBN:978-1-4766-1989-7.
- Curti, Roberto (2016a). Diabolika: Supercriminals, Superheroes and the Comic Book Universe in Italian Cinema. Midnight Marquee Press. ISBN:978-1-936168-60-6.
- Curti, Roberto (2016b). Tonino Valerii: The Films. McFarland. ISBN:978-1476664682.
- Curti, Roberto (2017a). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970-1979. McFarland. ISBN:978-1476629605.
- Curti, Roberto (2017b). Riccardo Freda: The Life and Works of a Born Filmmaker. McFarland. ISBN:978-1476628387.
- Curti, Roberto (2019). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989. McFarland. ISBN:978-1476672434.
- Ehrenreich, Andreas (2018). "The Production of The Possessed". The Possessed (booklet). Arrow Video. FCD1850 / AV183.
- Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. ISBN:978-1461673743.
- Gastaldi, Ernesto (2017). "Foreword by Ernesto Gastaldi". Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970-1979. McFarland. ISBN:978-1476629605.
- Grant, Kevin (2011). Any Gun Can Play. Fab Press. ISBN:9781903254615.
- Howarth, Troy (2015). So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films. Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. ISBN:978-1936168507.
- Kinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony (2017). Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908-1990. McFarland. ISBN:978-1476662916.
- Lucas, Tim (2013). Mario Bava - All the Colors of the Dark. ISBN:978-0-9633756-1-2.
- Sconce, Jeffrey, ed. (2007). Sleze Artists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style, and Politics. Duke University Press. ISBN:978-0822390190.
External links
- Ernesto Gastaldi at IMDb
- Ernesto Gastaldi at AllMovie
